2017: Setting the stage

Back in 2016-2017, we made a pivotal decision: to scale our enterprise business. Our focus areas were:

1. Advisory services to senior leaders to help them create innovation governance
2. Coaching teams through a productized innovation process
3. Online training accompanied by coaching or stand alone
4. Software to map and analyze business models

This was not necessarily what we had in mind when we started the business, but it was where we were getting the most traction. Our aim was recurring revenues. We just hadn’t figured out yet how to best get there.

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2020: Shifting towards an enterprise platform

As we implemented our strategy, we began to see different levels of traction across our offerings. While advisory and coaching services were gaining momentum, e-training and our standalone software weren't supporting the enterprise business as we had hoped.

Based on these trends we decided to radically adapt:

1. We reduced our focus on online training to fully focus on enterprise platform
2. For our software, we made a bold decision. Instead of selling it as a standalone product (which didn’t gain an enormous amount of traction), we decided to run all our coaching services on the platform.

This decision, made early 2020, wasn't without its challenges. Initially there was a strong pushback. A particularly memorable moment was when one team member voiced his concern about using what he termed our "crappy platform" for a big pharma client.

But here's where the rubber meets the road in innovation: we stuck to our strategic decision. This choice forced us to rapidly improve our platform, turning a potential weakness into a strength.

Reinvesting everything in the future

With our new direction set, we took another crucial step: reinvesting all profits from our services back into exploring new recurring revenue opportunities. This move exemplifies the balance between "exploit" (maximizing current business) and "explore" (investing in future opportunities) that we often discuss with our clients.

Our exploration led us down several paths:

1. We first explored building a coach community of corporate coaches who would use our software in their organizations. While it looked promising on paper, it didn't gain traction in reality. Crucially, we killed this idea and reallocated resources—a key principle in effective innovation.
2. Next, we noticed that companies were particularly interested in the programs we offered, which packaged our process, slides, and other materials on our software platform. We advertised these programs on our website, and people started buying directly.

This discovery led to our next strategic pivot. After rigorously testing price points we began selling these innovation programs to both SMEs and large companies for $10,000 per team.

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Navigating conflicts between old and new

There was a huge price disparity and value proposition clash between the new program licenses and the old software offer. This forced us to make another tough decision: we had to remove the lower-priced offering, even though it was still selling. It was clearly cannibalizing the new offer that was more attractive to the market despite the much higher price point.

This decision illustrates another crucial innovation principle: sometimes, you have to retire products to make way for more promising opportunities.

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2023: Scaling program licenses

Since 2023 we're in a new phase: the scaling of program licenses. Our focus is on achieving go-to-market fit for both SMEs and large corporations. In 2024 we were able to double revenues every quarter. We are even willing to cannibalize our service business by helping clients become autonomous with our program licenses. We’re 100% focused on replacing the old transactional business model with a new recurring revenue based business model.

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Key takeaways from our journey

Our story illustrates several key principles of strategic innovation:

1. Clear strategy guides innovation: Our initial decision to scale the enterprise business provided a north star for subsequent choices.
2. Willingness to pivot: We weren't afraid to shift our focus when we saw where the real value lay.
3. Balancing explore and exploit: We continually balanced improving our current offerings with exploring new opportunities.
4. Data-informed decisions: Our pivots were based on market feedback and performance data, not just intuition.
5. Courage to kill: We were willing to retire lower-value offerings to focus on more promising ones.
6. Willingness to cannibalize your old business: With our program licenses we make our clients autonomous from our services, because we see the long term value of recurring revenues from program licenses.
7. Continuous adaptation: Innovation is not a one-time event but a continuous process of learning and adapting.

At Strategyzer, we're committed to practicing what we preach. Our journey shows that innovation isn't always smooth sailing, but with a clear strategy, willingness to adapt, and courage to make tough choices, it's possible to turn innovation ambitions into tangible results.

Remember, your innovation journey will be unique to your organization. But we hope that by sharing our experiences, we can help illuminate the path forward on your own innovation journey.